The story of two Teessiders and a Yorkshire Schnauzer turning their first house into their first home, one DIY project at a time.

Sunday, 21 August 2016

North East Wedding Venues With a Twist.

Shut the front door - we've only gone and booked our wedding! I still can't quite believe it. 21st July 2018 cannot come quite enough, or maybe it can - lot's to plan and arrange... Eeek! So now that we've decided on the wedding venue, I thought I would share with you some of the wonderful North East venues that didn't quite make our number one spot but definitely deserve some love. When we were looking for a venue, we knew that we didn't want a traditional style wedding. Whilst I've been to some amazingly beautiful weddings in grand halls, these sort of formal venues don't really suit us. We wanted something a little bit different, a little bit quirky and very laid back.

So here's our top five quirky North East wedding venues.

1. Doxford Barns, Northumberland.

Photo credit: Doxford Weddings.This was the first venue we looked at that we both fell in love with. Above is the Threshing Hall where you can have your marriage ceremony, following which you and your guests can make your way to a more modern barn where the wedding reception is held. The site has a number of quirky cottages for you and your guests to stay, along with camping pods and camping pitches. Karen showed us round who was brilliant and so helpful. We visited on a day when a family christening was taking place and seeing the place alive with the hustle and bustle of people, along with dogs running around the barn freely made it a definite contender for us. Unfortunately the distance ended up putting us off - it's an hour and a half from where we live and it just wouldn't have been accessible for some of my family.

2. Alnwick Gardens Tree House, Northumberland. We didn't actually visit here as the distance had put us off when we had traveled to Doxford Barns, however from looking at the photo's on the website it is definitely worth a mention. How many people could say they got married in a treehouse?! The whole place looks like a scene from a fairytale and if that's not the perfect wedding setting, then what is? ..except obv our chosen venue because that is just a dream!

Slightly closer to home, this wedding venue had a perfect, authentic barn for the wedding ceremony which led into a modern, renovated barn for the reception. I liked the fact that you could keep both rooms all day at this venue so your guests could mingle between the two! The downsides were no on site accommodation but most importantly, dogs were not welcome!! Sorry P-Dawg! Here's the link.

4. Angrove Park, Great Ayton. We went to a wedding here last year and it was like nothing we had been to before. Angrove Park is basically a big field where you can have a marquee or a teepee erected for your wedding. The wedding we were lucky enough to be invited to consisted of a teepee, decked out with fairy lights and fire pits, along with a vintage double decker bus which combined another seating area and a bar! There is camping on site here and although this was very tempting for us, it was just a little bit too laid back for what we wanted. See it for yourself here.

5. Whinstone View, Great Ayton.

Photo credit: Whinstone View.Last but not least is a venue very similar to ours consisting of a lovely, modern barn. It is close to home and has lots of lodges for people to book as well as an on site spa. We're at a family wedding here next year and although tempting, we didn't want to copy! Check it out here.I hope you found this post helpful in search for your dream wedding venue. If you're anything like us, these quirky, laid back options will be right up your street! Let me know what you think!

2 comments

We visited Doxford Barns and Healey Barn too. Finding our dream venue in the North East was so tricky because there are just so many beautiful places. We really loved High House Farm and Woodhill Hall as well - in the end we found somewhere beautiful more suited to our budget but I live in hope that we get invited to a wedding at one of our other favourites soon!

Yes exactly, then you have to weigh the pro's and con's up of each! We picked the Yorkshire Wedding Barn in the end as it's only half an hour away from where we live, the cottages there are beautiful but mainly because we could take our dog :')

Thank you for the comment, have you blogged about any of your wedding prep?? :)